Carol Mullen
Catalog Number: 1945.018.47
This piece of 19th century sheet music was composed by Walter Brown, an early resident of La Crosse. The ornate cover of “I Love But Thee” mirrors the sentimental lyrics of Walter’s 1881 composition.
The piece is dedicated to Emma Abbott of the Grand English Opera Company. Abbott was an operatic soprano of the era, famed throughout Europe and the U.S. She and her husband Eugene Wetherall toured America from 1878 until Emma’s untimely death in 1891.
It is unknown if Emma Abbott performed Walter Brown’s song, or even heard of it. She often included popular music along with opera in her repertoire, which the public appreciated. Brown may have heard her sing in another city, or even in La Crosse where the Pomeroy Opera House had opened in 1878.
Walter Brown was one of La Crosse’s early settlers, arriving as a young man on the steamboat Nominee in 1851. He was born in Cuba and had trained in the hardware business in Connecticut. His future wife Abby Whitney came to La Crosse with her family from Massachusetts shortly afterward. Walter and Abby were part of La Crosse’s 1854 resident list, under “Single Men” and “Single Women.” They married in September 1855.
Walter began a hardware business on the riverfront, in partnership with W. E. Fales and later W. W. Jones. His wooden storefront burned in fires that ravaged early La Crosse’s business district in 1855 and 1864. He became an insurance agent in 1866, a career he would follow until his retirement. He had also invested in land as an early resident, and sold real estate.
Walter and Abby became writers in retirement. The back cover of the sheet music promotes two novels. “Mitylene”, written by Walter and Abby jointly in 1879, and “Can She Atone?” written by Abby independently in 1880.
“Mitylene”, subtitled “A Tale of New England and the Tropics”, is about a man, his daughters, and their physician shipwrecked on an uninhabited Pacific island. With elaborate prose, it told a Robinson Crusoe like story of their life on the island and eventual rescue. The book was highly popular in its time.
Abby’s book, “Can She Atone?” is about a woman who had a child out of wedlock, fell upon hard times, but eventually married a kind man. The story was fairly realistic, and sold widely throughout America and Britain in its day. It is currently available in reprinted editions because of its significance in women’s literature.
Walter appeared proud of his wife’s accomplishments. In La Crosse’s 1893 City Directory, he was listed as “real estate and author”. Abby had a separate listing at the same address as “authoress.”
Walter died in 1901, Abby in 1911. They are buried together in Oak Grove Cemetery. The couple had no children, or at least none that outlived them. Abby’s obituary lists a nephew as sole survivor.
The cover of “I Love But Thee” includes an inscription from Walter to Miss Inez Cooley. In 1945 now Inez Brayton, she donated the sheet music to La Crosse County Historical Society.
This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on May 1, 2021.
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